Ford Focus Electric, Plug-In Hybrids Sold Nationwide In 2013Ford Focus Electric, Plug-In Hybrids Sold Nationwide In 2013

Ford is the current king at dribbling out factoids on future products (though Honda’s been taking lessons).
But buried toward the bottom of its current press releases on all three of its plug-in electric cars is a sentence that notes, “The all-new C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid begins arriving this fall at EV Certified Ford dealers in 19 markets.”
In other words, this car may not be available in your area. Yet.
Ford has promised a “nationwide rollout in all 50 states in early 2013” for its C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid, and will do the same with the 2013 Ford Fusion Energi within months after that car goes on sale.
Now, Ford’s Wes Sherwood has confirmed that the Ford Focus Electric will follow the same schedule, going on sale at dealerships in all 50 states that have been certified to sell and service plug-in cars.
“We’re ramping up more dealers, and [three] vehicles at the same time,” Sherwood said in an e-mail. “It’s a very exciting time.”
The 2012 Ford Focus Electric is the company’s sole battery-electric vehicle.
Its rollout has been slow even compared to the slow and cautious pace displayed by Nissan and Chevrolet, both of which took 12 to 18 months to make their cars available nationwide.
2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid
The Focus Electric, technically went on sale last December, when 8 cars were sold. After 2 more in January, three months passed with no sales at all, then 6 more in May.
The pace quickened after Memorial Day, but its June and July sales figures of 89 and 38 are nothing to write home about either.
Meanwhile, Chevrolet is on track to sell 17,000 or more Volts this year and Nissan (still holding fast to its  20,000 Leafs by the end of the 2012 fiscal year–which extends through March 2013–despite six-month sales of just 3,150 cars.
But Ford has indicated that it expects to build no more than 5,000 Focus Electrics a year, once its electrified-car production capacity is fully ramped up at the end of 2013.
As Consumer Reports recently pointed out, that car is in very limited distribution right now, often requiring a tow vehicle and trailer if you don’t live within 60 or so miles of the one of the few dealerships in California, New York, or New Jersey that carries the Focus Electric.
2013 Ford Fusion
But it should be far more available by this time next year–although in many regions, like the Nissan Leaf, the Focus Electric may still require some one-way transport on a trailer pulled by a gasoline- or diesel-burning vehicle.
Before the nationwide rollout in “early 2013,” Ford will expand from its current three states to 15 additional regions in the second half of this year.
They are: Atlanta, Austin and Houston, Texas; Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Orlando, Fla., Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Portland, Ore.; Raleigh Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va., Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
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